Gillian Cockerill

Dr Cockerill studied biochemistry at King’s College London and completed a PhD in smooth muscle cell plasticity in the laboratory of Professors Julie and Gordon Campbell, in Australia.Since obtaining her doctorate her research interests have focused on the nature of atherosclerotic plaque stability and vascular remodelling with the aim of identifying new drug targets for therapy.Her seminal paper on the anti-inflammatory effects of high density lipoproteins, and her subsequent work in the field, has led to the award of several prestigious fellowships and prizes.The most recent being the International HDL Research award for 2005, funded by Pfizer.

Dr Cockerill is the Scientific Group Leader for Academic Vascular Surgery Research Unit, and directs a group of eight full-time research staff. Since joining St George’s University of London in 2003, has worked closely with Professor Matt Thompson and Mr Ian Lotfus, to establish an RCT (The REVEAL study) to evaluate the effect of a transient elevation of plasma HDL concentration on atherosclerotic plaque stability.This study will be reported at the American Heart Association 2007.Since the collapse of trials for Torcetrapib™, the CETP inhibitor drug which raises plasma HDLs, there is renewed interest in the use of native reconstituted HDL infusions for treatment of acute vascular diseases.

In addition Dr Cockerill’s research group has defined an important correlation between numbers of early circulating progenitor cells in aneurysmal aetiology, which may be useful in treatment and/or management of the disease.More recently, from data obtained following the analysis of the transcriptional profile of aneurysm rupture, Dr Cockerill has defined a therapeutic role for PPAR-gamma agonist drugs in aneurysm, and has gone in to show this to be the case in pre-clinical studies. This is the first time such a family of drugs has been applied to aneurysmal disease, and presents another opportunity for rapid translation of a therapeutic effect into the clinic, since the drugs are currently used for treating type II diabetes and are well tolerated in this patient group.

Selected Publications:

GW Cockerill, G Meyer, L Noack, MA Vadas and JR Gamble (1994a) Characterisation of a spontaneously transformed human endothelial cell line. Lab Invest.71:497-509.

GW Cockerill, JR Gamble, and MA Vadas. (1995a) Angiogenesis: models and modulators. International Reviews of cytology.159:113-160.

GW Cockerill, AG Bert, JR Gamble, MA Vadas and PN Cockerill. (1995b) Regulation of GM-CSF and E-selectin in endothelial cells by cylosporin A and the T cell transcription factor NFAT. Blood. 86:2689-2698.

GW Cockerill, K-A Rye, JR Gamble, MA Vadas and P Barter. (1995c). High density lipoproteins inhibit cytokine-induced expression of adhesion molecules on endothelial cells. Arteriosclerosis, Thromb Vasc Biol.15:1987-1994.

GW Cockerill, O Weibkin, R Krishnan, S Huffam, S Graves, JR Gamble and MA Vadas.(1996) Characterisation of a myofibroblast-like cell line from an angiosarcoma.Int JOncol 9:411-418.

GW Cockerill, G Meyer, L Varcoe, MA Vadas, and JR Gamble (1998) Early events in angiogenesis: cloning of an alpha-prolyl hydroxylase-like gene. Int J Oncol. 13:595-600.

GW Cockerill and SC Reed. (1999) High Density Lipoproteins: multipotent effects on cells of the vasculature. International Reviews in cytology (invited review).188. 257-297.

GW Cockerill, J Saklatvala, SH Ridley, H Yarwood, NE Miller, B Oral, S Nithyanathan, G Taylor and DO Haskard.(1999) High-density lipoproteins differentially modulate cytokine-induced expression of E-selectin and cyclooxygenase-2.Arterioscler ThrombVasc Biol. 19:910-917.

GW Cockerill, T Heuhns, C Stocker, NE Miller and DO Haskard.(2001) Elevation of plasma HDL inhibits cytokine-induced induction of E-selectin in a porcine model of acute inflammation. Circulation.103:108-112.

GW Cockerill, MC McDonald, H Mota-Filipe, S Cuzzocrea, NE Miller, C Thiemermann. (2001) High-density lipoproteins reduce organ injury and organ dysfunction in haemorrhagic shock. FASEB J.15:1941-1952.

AA Girjes, D Keriakous, GW Cockerill, IP Hayward, GR Campbell, JH Campbell (2002) Cloning of a differentially expressed tropomyosin isoform from cultured rabbit aortic smooth muscle cells. Int J Bioc Cell Biol.34:505-515.

MC McDonald, P Dhaley, GW Cockerill, S Cuzzocrea, H Mota-Filipe, Hinds CJ, Miller NE, Thiemerman C. (2003) Reconstituted high-density lipoprotein attenuates organ injury and adhesion molecule expression in a rodent model of endotoxic shock.Shock.20:551-557.

C Theimerman, Patel NS, Kvala EO, GW Cockerill, PA Brown, KN Stewart, S Cuzzocrea, D Brilli, H Mota-Filipe, PK Chatterjee. (2003) High densty lipoproteins (HDL) reduces renal ischaemia /reperfusion injury.J AM Soc Nephrol.2003.14:1833-43.

Cuzzocrea S, Dugo L, patel NS, Di paola R, Cockerill GW, Genovese T, Thiemermann C. (2004) High-density lipoproteins reduce the intestinal damage associated with ischaemia/reperfusion and colitis. Shock.21;342-351.

Thompson MM, Reed SC, Cockerill GW. (2004). Therapeutic approaches to raising plasma HDL-cholesterol levels. Nature CP Cardiovasc Med. 1:84-89.

Choke E, Cockerill G, Wilson WR, Sayed S, Dawson J, Loftus I, Thompson MM. (2005) A review of biological factors implicated in abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture. Eur J Vasc Surg.30:227-244.

Dawson J, Choke E, Sayed S, Cockerill G, Loftus I, Thompson MM. (2006) Pharmacotherapy of abdominal aortic aneurysms. Curr Vasc Pharmacol. 4:129-49.

Choke E, Thompson MM, Dawson J, Wilson WR, Sayed S, Loftus I, Cockerill GW. (2006) Abdominal aortic rupture is associated with increased medial neovascularization and overexpression of proangiogenic cytokines. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol.26:2077-2082.

Niranjan G, Asimakopolos G, Karagounis A, Gockerill G, Thompson M, Chandrasakaran V. (2006) Effects of cell saver autologous blood transfusion on blood loss and homologous blood transfusion requirements in patients undergoing cardiac surgery on-versus off-cardiopulmonary bypass: a randomised trial.Eur J Cardiothorac Surg.30:271-277.

Thompson MM, Cockerill G.. Matrix metalloproteinase-2: the forgotten enzyme in aneurysm pathogenesis. (2006) Ann NYAcad Sci 1085:170-174.

Choke E, Cockerill GW, Dawson J, Chung YL, Griffiths J, Wilson RW, Loftus IM, Thompson MM. (2006) Hypoxia at the site of abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture is not associated with increased lactate.AnnNYAcad.1085:306-310.

Choke E, Thompson MM, Jones A, Torsney E, Dawson J, Laing K, Nasr H, Loftus IM, Cockerill GW. (2006) Gene expression profile of abdominal aortic rupture.Ann N Y Acad.1085:311-314